“Birth no more constitutes the beginning of the life of the individual than it does the end of gestation. Birth represents a complex and highly important series of functional changes which serve to prepare the newborn for the passage across the bridge between gestation within the womb and gestation continued out of the womb.” (Montagu, 1986, 57)
Welcome to The Fourth Trimester
Breastfeeding and dummies: what you need to know.
A dummy (or pacifier if you speak American English) is a breast substitute for babies who have a high need to suck which their mother cannot always accommodate.
However, people often get this mixed up and acuse babies of using the breast as a dummy! How bizarre is it to imagine the artificial nipple is the default and a baby using the actual thing is the variation?
Container babies? Bucket babies? What are they?
If you had a baby shower, gift registry or excited grandparents, chances are your home gained an array of baby equipment in the months before your baby was born. Look around the typical modern house with a baby and you are likely to see several variations of things to put your infant in.
Car seats, strollers, bouncers, seats, swings and other equipment can all hold your baby when you can't. Some - like car seats - are life saving essentials. Others have limited use. But all can become a problem if your baby spends too much cumulative time in them.
Infant development in the first three months
Never again does the human develop at the rate it does in the first three months of life. Newborns typically sleep around 16 hours out of 24, conserving energy and allowing for the Active Sleep state, which wires the enormous human brain in advance of each stage of physical and intellectual development. Humans produce a unique milk which supports this rapid brain growth, unlike many mammals who need to produce young with strong muscles and bones to allow them to keep up with a moving herd.
Infant sleep development
There are probably more myths and misconceptions about infant sleep than any other aspect of raising a child – and you can’t believe everything you hear! In fact, as many as one-third of parents admit to lying about their babies sleep patterns in an effort to conform with societies beliefs about what is normal!
Crying Babies
The sound of a baby crying gets our attention, it is nearly impossible to ignore.
Research suggests men and women respond differently to the sound of a crying baby: in women, the sound triggers feelings of sympathy and caregiving – in men, the responses include irritation and even anger.
The sound of your own baby crying goes much deeper – it reaches inside you and sets off all sorts of instinctive responses.